The Seventh Path of the Fox
by ragonen
Summary: 12 years after mysteriously disappearing, naruto is found by returning ANBU. He won't say anything about what he did or where he was. And the Kyuubi seems to have a massive hold over his mind. And a strong control over his being...
1. An Unexpected Return

I do not own Naruto.

This is my first story and I will try to make it as good as possible, I have a full plot for the story. so any changes to any of the characters is planned out for later in the story. to make some things known. I don't like character bashing, and I don't intend to do any in this story. Next Kyuubi is a BOY! period end of story. Some chapters may have Omakes, some won't.

Enjoy!

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><p>Chapter 1 - A Unexpected Return<p>

The four ANBU were running through the forest eager to return home after their long reconnaissance mission to the wave. "I can't wait to get back and enjoy some nice hot dango." commented Cheetah. He was met by agreeing grunts from his fellow ANBU, they had spent the last week spying on the situation in Kiri. This had been an A-rank mission and they were all anticipating the rewards that came with such a mission. Bat suddenly said "hold up, theres a strange chakra source up ahead."

"OK team, we'll go in standard formation ill take front, Bat you take back, Cheetah you take right, and Deer you take left." Bobcat said. They quickly jumped into formation and continued cautiously towards the target.

The four ANBU stopped on the branches overlooking the clearing where the chakra was emitting from. "I can't believe it... all of that chakra, was coming from this kid!" Bat asked. "It's not impossible, we've all seen the power of young protégés" Cheetah responded. "Let's just grap the kid and get going. I want to get back before sundown, and the kid will slow us down, so let's get going." Deer said. "OK, I'll take the kid for now, let's just get going and hope no one else senses the massive amount of chakra and comes to kill the kid." Bobcat responded. Bobcat hoisted the kid onto his back piggyback style, then jumped up into the branches closely followed by his team.

In Konoha -

Sarutobi sighed, he hadn't felt this stressed since Naruto disappeared and Jiraiya left to go write another of his disgusting (yet oddly satisfying) books. Now he had to deal with a conspiracy theory about the Uchiha massacre, that left doubts as to whether the conspirators where actually thinking beings or just a waste of space. Not to mention the massive pile of paperwork that was just sitting on his secretary's desk, gathering dust. He really cursed the First for not coming up with a solution to the paperwork problem.

Just as Sarutobi was finishing up with the conspiracy document, a ANBU wearing a wolf mask appeared in the room, he said "Hokage-sama, we have a giant problem."

Konoha hospital -

The door to the operating room waiting area burst open and the Sarutobi ran in. "Where is he? I need to see him now!" He quickly surveyed the people in the room, apart from him and Wolf there was one chuunin and four ANBU. As soon as he arrived the ANBU wearing a Bobcat mask jumped up and ran over. He bowed before Sarutobi and said, "Hokage-sama, I should've come straight to deliver the mission report, but his life was in danger so we rushed him here immediately." Sarutobi said "Just fill me in."

"We finished our mission in Wave successfully and as we were returning Bat sensed a huge chakra source to our right, we found the kid lying in a clearing wearing the clothes over there." Sarutobi glanced over at a black cloak lying on the table outside the operating room. "After we found him we continued on our way back here, but when we got within sensor range, he just started to shake and emit this dark red chakra. We had our suspicions as to who it was but this confirmed it. I haven't felt that chakra in a good 12 years, but I'd never forget something like that." Sarutobi looked over at the door to the operating room with a strange look on his face "continue" he said. "As soon as he began emitting chakra, we began to wonder as to whether or not it was coming out. So we let off a chakra beacon telling the village to come. but before they got to us Cheetah noticed that there was blood dripping down the kids arms, when we lifted up his sleeves we saw numerous cuts up and down his arms, and the chakra seemed to be seeping out of them at an alarming rate. We picked the kid up and sprinted for the village Wolf met us halfway there and said that we should make for the hospital and that he'd inform you."

Just then the operating room light went off and a doctor came out. Everyone in the room quickly jumped to their feet and ran over to the doctor to hear what he said. "Everyone will stay out here except for Hokage-sama."

"Wolf come with me" Sarutobi said. almost running to the door. when he opened the door he saw the boy lying on the operating room table with a breathing support on his face and multiple needles sticking out of his arm. Sarutobi looked over at the doctor who said "He seems to have suffered an overly high amount of chakra exhaustion, and a massive amount of internal bleeding. Unfortunately, he wasn't responding to any of the medications we gave him but when we put a suppressing seal on him, he started to calm down. We've managed to drain almost all of the blood from his system but the only thing we can do about the chakra exhaustion is to wait and see what'll happen when he wakes up."

Sarutobi let out a very relieved sigh "at least he knew that Naruto was alive, he'd been afraid of worse, but then again who knew about what happened to him. All of his best ANBU spent over a month looking, and all of his spies in the other nations had failed, so where had he been?" Sarutobi thought.

When Sarutobi exited the operating room the ANBU had sat back down to wait. When they saw Sarutobi they jumped to their feet. "OK, Bobcat you and your squad will go to my office and wait there, I'll be there in five." the ANBU responded with a quick "Hai" before disappearing. Sarutobi turned to the chuunin in the room and said "You're Iruka, right? You're an academy instructor. Why are you here?" Iruka replied "Yes I'm Iruka. I was in the hospital going to see my niece, she fell out of a tree and while I was at the reception counter I saw the ANBU appear with this kid. before they disappeared with the doctor I saw a glimpse of the kids face. He was one of my genin missions, to check on him. I'd always wondered where he'd gone, and he looked in bad shape so I ran after them to see what happened and if they needed any help."

"You can't tell anyone that he's back or what happened to him, as of now it is an S-rank secret." Sarutobi said. Iruka gulped he wasn't good at keeping secrets, that's why he'd always tried to avoid finding any high ranking secrets. And now he'd gotten himself pulled into a secret, and one punishable by death no less. "You should go back to your niece, this is a very important matter now." Sarutobi continued.

Once Iruka had left, Sarutobi turned to Wolf and said "OK I have a very important mission for you. You have to go and discover whatever you can about what Naruto has done these past years, sightings, appearances, aliases, and most importantly, who took him. You have two hours to assemble a team, you can take anyone, anything else they're doing is irrelevant at the moment." Sarutobi sighed "I know he was your sensei's son and I feel your pain. Good luck" Wolf nodded his head once and disappeared.

Sarutobi Turned to the doctor and said "you heard me before, it's a S-rank secret. And NO one is allowed in here till I return." Before he disappeared.

Sarutobi appeared back in his office facing four ANBU. "I know that the mission should be upgraded to a S-rank but then there'd be a question as to why caused it to be. No one can know about the Kyuubi chakra surrounding him. That would lead to question the Yondaimes seal. You'll each be receiving a bonus though for a excellent mission." Sarutobi said before opening drawer of his desk and pulled out four envelopes and handing them respectively to the four ANBU. "before you leave I have to tell you that what you learned today is classified as an S-rank secret. And now I have an S+ rank mission for you." At the mention of an S+ rank mission, also known among ANBU as a KAGE-rank mission, the four ANBU nervously swallowed. They had friends who'd gone on KAGE-rank missions before and returned in body bags. "You may recruit two other full ANBU squads for this mission. You are to bring Jiraiya and Tsunade back here on pain of death." Sarutobi continued. At the mention of bringing Tsunade back one of the ANBU fainted and collapsed backwards onto the floor. Sarutobi looked at the ANBU on the floor and sighed, he knew this was going to happen. "You are to use any means necessary to succeed in your mission. If you do, rest assured you'll be receiving a massive bonus. And lastly, since you'll likely be going nearly everywhere. I need you to deliver this message to Grass country's Daimyo, it's a B-rank mission so It's just and encouragement to go towards Grass." The three remaining ANBU said a quick "Hai" before picking up their fallen comrade and disappearing through the door. Sarutobi leaned back in his chair, thinking about what a headache this would cause with the council, when his secretary opened his door carrying a giant stack of paperwork. Sarutobi nearly fainted himself.

Konoha Hospital Later that night –

The doctor was leaving when he noticed a slight color shift in the boys cloak, thinking there was a possible trap or something associated with it, the doctor grabbed the cloak and ran to the Hokage Tower.

Sarutobi had just finished the first stack of paperwork when one of Naruto's doctors came running into the room followed by his secretary yelling something about not disturbing him. Sarutobi's heart was beating rapidly just thinking about all of the possible things that could have happened to Naruto. "what happened doctor?"

"As I was leaving I noticed that his cloak looked strange so I thought maybe it could help with something so I ran over here." The doctor replied. Sarutobi began to channel chakra into the cloak in order to dispel any genjutsu. After trying for a couple of seconds Sarutobi realized that in order to remove the genjutsu he'd have to channel a lot more chakra. After channeling nearly all of his chakra the genjutsu disappeared revealing a black cloak with red clouds on it. Sarutobi fell back into his chair thinking.

_(Flashback)_

_Sarutobi was sitting in his chair looking at a report he just received from Kakashi, apparently there was a new terrorist organization that had just recently been formed, and no one knew what they were after just that they were made of S-rank missing nins wearing black cloaks adorned with red clouds. Sarutobi looked up from the report and said "go send a message to our undercover agents to find out what they can about this organization, and tell them to keep an eye out for them. A group of S-rank missing nins could easily become a very annoying and possibly deadly force." Kakashi just grunted in acknowledgment before taking out his famous orange book and disappearing in a swirl of leaves. Sarutobi was just thinking about taking nap or going out for lunch when his door opened and his secretary came in with another giant stack of paperwork. Sarutobi began to envy his two predecessors and his successor for not having to suffer this intolerable thing anymore._

_(Flashback End)_

Sarutobi summoned his ANBU who appeared in a swirl of leaves. "Yes Hokage-sama?" they asked. "I need you to go and find Kakashi he'll be about to leave on a mission I need him to come right now." "Yes Hokage-sama" they responded before disappearing in a swirl of leaves. Sarutobi leaned back in his chair, "this just got better and better…"

To be continued.

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><p>I will try to update soon based on how much time I have and how the story goes. but I expect that it won't take long.<p> 


	2. Reinstatement

Hey!

Here's the second chapter. This will probably be about the amount of time it takes me to write and post new chapters. Its about double the length of the first chapter and hopefully not the longest to be.

Enjoy!

-I don't own Naruto-

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><p>Chapter 2 – Reinstatement<p>

Sarutobi could hardly believe his eyes, if the report in front of him was true, that could be horrible for Konoha's reputation. If word got out that when one of the biggest explosions heard in the land since the war happened, Konoha didn't even find out till three months later.

According to Kakashi's report, over the past few years the organization known as Akatsuki had started to make its move, capturing the jinchuuriki. This of course was all rumors based on witnesses to the battles, where two men came to one of the jinchuuriki's and engaged them in a battle. The men were so strong that sometimes they even managed to subdue the beast when it was completely released. Supposedly there were ten inner circle members of that caliber.

To think, Naruto came back wearing one of the inner circles cloaks. Just what happened over those long years? He'd have to ask Naruto once he wakes up. Assuming that he was still Naruto…

The doctors had reported that all of his vitals read healthy and all there was left was for him to wake up.

He'd posted ANBU hidden all over the area around the hospital as a precaution, and he always had two ANBU in the room with him.

Sarutobi just hoped that it would be enough if Naruto awoke and went on rampage.

He still remembered clearly the day that Minato sealed the Kyuubi into his son, sacrificing his life for it.

How the world rejoiced when the hated Yellow Flash was declared dead. He remembered his spies sending in reports about how missions were canceled in Iwa as the Tsuchikage announced a day of festivals.

And then 2 years later Naruto was taken from underneath their noses. At first he'd thought that another of the villages had kidnapped him. But after ten years of no success from his spies he'd resigned himself Naruto being dead.

And now he was back, what could he do? The council would want to have him locked away or worse. But then again, if Naruto was with that terrorist organization who knew if he'd even be loyal to the village anyways.

Oh well, he'd have to deal with the stuff as it came, for now he had a massive pile of documents sitting on his desk that seemed to be growing by the minute.

Iruka was once again sitting in Naruto's hospital room looking at the young blond with a sad expression. It was really a shame what happened to the boy he being gone for a full ten years probably taken care of by some psychopath missing nin, only god knew what could've happened to the boys mind.

As Iruka sat there staring out the window at the sky thinking he noticed out of the corner of his eye that the boy on the bed twitched and began to make small movements.

Iruka jumped to his feet calling for the ANBU right outside the door. The two ANBU entered looking for the problem, when they saw Naruto moving around one said "Stay here and keep an eye on him we'll go get Hokage-sama and the doctor." And both of them disappeared.

Iruka turned back to Naruto, looking at him the only thought that passed through his head was that Naruto reminded him of someone who died in the Kyuubi attack twelve years previously, his old role model.

Iruka was still looking at Naruto's moving body when Sarutobi appeared next to him with an ANBU at his side. "What happened? Tell me exactly what happened."

In a dark room glowing with red light, surrounded by a puddle of water, Naruto sat on a chair facing the locked entrance to the cage, every time he looked at the almost fully ripped seal he thought back to that fateful day that changed his life…

_(Flashback)_

_Naruto stood before the seal, Kyuubi's voice ringing in his head. He'd always wondered what would happen when he finally released his old mentor. And now as he reached for the seal his heartbeat sped up by all of the things that Kyuubi had told him would happen._

_He reached out and gripped the top corner of the seal and began to tear. As Naruto ripped the seal he felt more and more of Kyuubi's chakra enter his system and warm him._

_As he began to pull off the last part of the seal and fully release Kyuubi-sensei, a hand reached out and grabbed his own stopping his cold._

_Naruto looked up, directly into a face almost identical to his own. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Naruto was again in front of the seal on Kyuubi-sensei's cage, only this time he knew that he was being controlled, but still he couldn't do anything as his shaking hand slowly reached out and grasped the now fully restored seal._

_But no matter how much concentration he had, he couldn't stop his own hand from starting to tear the seal._

_Naruto began to sweat not wanting to think about what could happen if the seal was fully removed where he was, she couldn't die, not the only one who'd seen something in him, not her._

_As the seal reached the point where he'd been stopped last time he felt a surge of strange chakra erupt through his body for a few seconds._

_The strange chakra entered his system and overwhelmed the demon chakra, eroding it till it was nearly nonexistent._

_As the chakra flowed through his body he felt his enemy's technique fade away and slowly disappear._

_Naruto took his hand off of the seal before turning around and disappearing from his mindscape."_

_(Flashback End)_

He still shivered to think about what would've happened had he fully ripped the seal. **"The white meatbag is back" **Kyuubi said as he roused from his nap. "So what, it makes no difference if my body can't handle the stress. How am I recovering?" Naruto said back. "**Watch how you talk to me brat! You seem too often to forget who you're talking to." **Kyuubi roared. "Sorry sensei, my bad, I'm anxious to return to the village that I've heard so much about." Naruto replied shrugging his head. **"Never mind, your body's practically healed, I would've been done by now but the stupid meatbag messed with some of your chakra coils. So I suggest you don't go on a complete rampage when you wake up." **Kyuubi said. Naruto stood up from his chair and looked up at the Kyuubi "OK, thanks sensei." He said before disappearing.

Naruto opened his eyes and squinted, the sunlight pouring through the window partially burning him. He was inside a hospital room with a TV on the wall in front of him and some bookcases to his left. On his right next to the only door there was a small group of people talking amongst themselves.

Listing to their conversation, Naruto learned that he was found a few miles outside of the village by ANBU.

"Good, just as I estimated." He thought.

And that they thought he was in a coma, also that he just recently started moving. But the most tricky part was that somehow they had removed the genjutsu from his cloak. "Damn it! Sensei, how did they break the genjutsu?" Naruto thought to himself. **"The damned meatbag, after he messed with the seal that I had to fix to help you, he somehow saw through the genjutsu and broke it." **Kyuubi replied. Oh well, that wasn't the worst thing that could happen.

Naruto quickly scanned all of the nearby chakra signatures. The only ones that presented a threat, were two, one was in his room with high kage level reserves. And the other was one of the nearby ANBU with high A-rank levels.

Knowing that he was safe, being confident in his abilities even in his weakened state, Naruto sat up.

Sarutobi had just finished hearing the whole story from Iruka when he sensed a spike in chakra from behind him. Spinning around to face the intruder he saw a young boy standing in front of him. He was wearing baggy orange pants, and a baggy orange shirt. He had blue boots, and a blue belt. He had a blue undershirt and blue wrist guard. On the back of his shirt was a spiral design, (Naruto wearing a Son Goku outfit, but with the Uzumaki spiral on it). His yellow hair was spiking up in all directions and he was emitting enough chakra that it was almost visible to the naked eye. He had a young face with red slit-ed eyes and whisker like marks on the sides of his face.

"Naruto! Is that really you?" Sarutobi said. "yes, it's me, I'm back" Naruto replied. "any place we can talk?" he continued. "Yes, my office, Iruka will bring you there accompanied by ANBU" Sarutobi said before disappearing.

As Naruto left room, he sensed all of the hidden ANBU move and begin to follow. Two jumped down and joined his escort.

When they reached the hokage tower, the four ANBU guards jumped up into nearby trees and vanished from view. So Naruto continued in, following Iruka. He left Naruto at the door to the hokage office.

Naruto opened the door to Sarutobi's office and walked in. the walls were a comforting shade of light brown with windows every few feet, in front of him was a hardwood desk with mounds of papers everywhere. Behind the desk was an old man wearing red and white kage robes.

"Hello Naruto, there really is no good way to say this, but I'm sorry. I should've taken better care of you and not let you disappear. Now I'm afraid I have to ask you what happened during those ten years and why are you back, and why do you trust me? Sarutobi said

Naruto began "ten years ago I was kidnapped and raised by Akatsuki, they taught me how to be a ninja. I became one of their assassin ninjas, but unknown to me I was being controlled by the leader in one of his genjutsus, I succeeded in escaping before I released the Kyuubi. The leader tried to kill me but I escaped, we fought in the forests near the border of fire country and rain country. In the battle he used a bomb jutsu which I used Kyuubi's chakra to block but the explosion sent us flying in other directions."

"But why were you coming back to here. And how did you know you where from Konoha?" Sarutobi asked.

"I thought that I'd be best accepted in a place where my father was a great leader and a hero, although some of the people here treated me in horrible ways even when I was a baby." Naruto responded.

"H-how do you know about your father?" Sarutobi stammered.

"He helped me out when I needed it the most." Naruto replied. "I understand why you didn't tell people I'm his son" Sarutobi let out a relieved sigh. "but still you could've treated me like a son, not an orphan." Naruto continued as his face hardened in anger, "and, just when were you, going to tell me that I was the Yondaime's son.

"I was going to tell you once you were strong enough to hold your own against enemy ninjas. And it's mostly my fault for how you were treated. I gave you everything you needed but I didn't take into account the fact the almost everyone in the village hated you from the start" Sarutobi said, he looked crestfallen at the admittance.

"I trust you based on information I received from a good source." Naruto said. "And now I request to rejoin the village, as a ninja." He continued

"I would let you rejoin without hesitation, except that I don't know if you are trustworthy. But on matters of village security the council has a say." Sarutobi replied. "so I'll have to ask you to return tomorrow morning and go to the council at ten A.M." he continued. "In the meantime you'll stay with Iruka, the chunnin who escorted you. I'll call him to come and get you to bring you to his house." Sarutobi said

"No need, I always wanted to explore the village, I'll find him on my own." Naruto said as he turned and walked out the door.

Sarutobi jumped to his feet and ran to the door yelling "Naruto! Wait, don't go."

But when he exited his office Naruto was nowhere to be seen.

Naruto silently walked down the street, ignoring everyone around him, including the stares they gave him.

As he walked down the street he overheard small parts of their whisperings. "Is that him?", "I thought he died years ago.", "why did he come back?", "we were happier without him.", "he ruined our village."

"Now I see what you meant" Naruto thought to himself.

"**This is why I wasn't eager for you to return."** Kyuubi replied.

"Doesn't matter they're insignificant. I just want to enjoy the walk." Naruto thought back to himself.

But it seemed that the farther down the street he walked, the more people there were, and the more aggressive they got, until one man threw a rock at Naruto and yelled "Go back to your hole you fucking demon brat! We should kill you just because you're still alive" He was met with cries of "YA!" from the rest of the crowd.

The mob began to advance on Naruto waving sticks and bats, with the leader at the front.

Naruto waited till they had closed a circle around him before he disappeared from view. But before it could register in the mobs eyes the leader had been through in to the air and hit with an over head dropkick.

The ensuing crack was heard by everyone within two blocks, as the ground where the man hit cracked and tore open leaving a 5 foot crater with a twitching man lying in the center. He looked as if his bones had been unaligned and broken.

Naruto was running over the tops of houses at top speed, leaving the stupid villagers and their idiotic leader behind. He was headed for the hokage monument, all the while looking at his father's face. "Dad, I've returned just like you requested, but now what?"

Konoha council chambers 9:30 A.M.

Sarutobi looked heavily at the council members. The expressions on their faces gave them away. Almost none of them wanted to let him back into the village.

They all seemed to be in a type of stupor until someone spoke up, it was Shikaku. "What reason do we have to trust him to become one of our shinobi?"

One of the civilian council members broke out of his trance and turned a half-crazed look at Shikaku. "How can you even think of considering him to be let back into the village?"

A couple of the other council members nodded their heads in agreement.

"Because he hasn't done anything, and he is very valuable to the village." Shikaku replied to the council member.

"How can you say that he hasn't done anything? My wife and brother died because of him!" The now enraged council member shouted back.

"You're not thinking." Sarutobi interjected.

"He and the fox aren't the same, you have to differentiate." Shikaku continued

The Council member looked like he was ready to attack them. "He's a demon! You can see it on his face! He should've died those years ago!"

"Mr. Hikaru, if you do not calm down then you will be forced to leave" Sarutobi said to the enraged man.

"I wouldn't want to be on a council with demon loving people anyway!" He spat out before turning and storming out the door.

The rest of the council stared at the door for a few moments before turning back to look at Sarutobi.

"ok, now Shikaku, to answer your question. We really don't have a reason to trust him, but then again we'll try all the same."

"But, hokage-sama, why should we try all that hard for his case. He is not unlike all the other former ninjas who came to try to get into our village?" Hiashi Hyuuga cut in.

"Ah but he is, you see. Our village was weakened after the Kyuubi attacked, and now Naruto has returned. This means that we would once again have the power of a Jinchuuriki behind us." Sarutobi said

"That doesn't seem to be reason enough to just trust him right off of the bat. For all we know he could've been brainwashed or be loyal to missing-nin." Hiashi replied.

A couple of the other members muttered agreements, and one spoke up. "We may be the most tolerant village, and we may be the most lenient on who can join. But, even we can't let someone back into the village if they were found emitting a huge amount of evil chakra. My son was volunteering at the hospital when he was brought in, and even he could feel the chakra, and he isn't a ninja."

"You didn't let me finish." Sarutobi replied. "The second and main reason I wish to let him back into the village. The last wish of the Yondaime, was that Naruto be treated like a hero."

"He's been gone his entire life, how could we mistreat him if he wasn't here." One of the civilian members spoke up.

"Even before he disappeared, almost everyone refused to have anything to do with him. Less than a week after the Yondaime's last request was given there were 3 attempts at his life. It seems that even in the few years that he was here, people didn't follow orders, and tried to do horrid things."

A couple of the members of the council fidgeted in the seats.

"And would these people have done those horrid things if they'd known that the boy who they were trying to kill was actually the son of their savior?"

At this, the expressions on the faces of the council members went from shock to wonder to pain.

"I-Is he really Yondaime-sama's son?" Inoichi stammered.

Sarutobi sighed, "Yes".

"Why'd Yondaime –sama seal the Kyuubi into his own son then?" Tsume asked.

"When Minato first told me what he planned to do, I asked the same question. He said that when he became Hokage he said the he was prepared to sacrifice everything for the village. Also he couldn't ask someone else to something unless he was prepared to do it himself."

The other members of the council sat back and pondered Sarutobi's words.

Shikaku was the first to speak up. "So that's the main reason you want to let Naruto back into the village, to honor Yondaime-sama's memory."

Sarutobi's gaze slowly moved across the faces of the council members, before landing on Shikaku. "Yes, this is the main reason, to honor Minato's legacy. I promised Minato before he left that I would protect his son. Sadly, I failed even at that."

"We still can't just let him join and become a ninja, like I said before he could be an enemy or worse." Shikaku continued.

"We should try non-the-less, we owe it to Minato."

At that moment the door opened and Naruto walked in, he was wearing the same clothes as he had before except that he wasn't emitting an aura of chakra.

He looked around at the different faces of the council members. Judging by that fact that their faces weren't that of anger, he assumed that Sarutobi has already told them.

"How much did you tell them?" Naruto said turning his gaze to Sarutobi.

"Almost everything, but before we can make our decision, we need to know who your informant is and whether or not he's trustworthy."

"I swore I would never reveal who he is. And the only one who I trust enough to tell is you. I met him a few years ago, and he taught me quite a bit of what I know…"

Turning his head to face Sarutobi completely he continued. "…and he wears the same as me."

Sarutobi's eyes widened considerably when he put it together. "W-what did he t-tell you?"

Naruto's gaze traveled over the silent members of the council before falling to rest on the elders. "Everything"

"Then I suggest that you be allowed back under probation for three months."

The council looked shocked at his words. First he demands to know who the informant is, but when he finds out he unquestionably lets him off the hook.

Hiashi was the first to speak up. "Hokage-sama, how can we just let him into the village? And who is the informant?"

Sarutobi looked back towards the council, "I'm sorry Hiashi, I can't tell you who the informant is. He is very deep undercover. I assure you that he is completely loyal to Konoha and very reliable. I trust him to know what he's doing by telling Naruto what he did."

"Very well…" Hiashi said.

"But we expect a better detailed description later, Sarutobi." Koharu said while Homura nodded in agreement.

As the council got up to leave Sarutobi turned to Naruto. "Come with me to my office. I need to talk to you before you go."

"Naruto…" Sarutobi began, "you probably are a lot stronger than you look, and should probably be a chuunin or a jounin… but since you were trained in the field and haven't received the training given in ninja villages. I want you to go to the academy."

"WHAT!" Naruto said with a look of utmost disbelief on his face.

"I know it's dumb, but you need to learn the way that ninja villages work. Don't worry, there is a class that's your age and about to graduate. Just go with them and join a squad. At your level you'll progress much faster than all the others."

Naruto was fuming; he understood why Sarutobi was doing this, but still… joining a bunch of ignorant young weaklings.

"Naruto, before you say anything. If you truly want to become a ninja of the village, you need to know how to function as a ninja of a village, not a nuke-nin. And there is probably no better way than this."

Naruto just couldn't imagine learning all the basics again and enduring time with weaklings… but then he remembered what he was tasked with from his friend. He'd said that they were the same age, so this could be the perfect opportunity.

"Very well meatbag, I accept."

"OK, now to th- WHAT DID YOU CALL ME!" Sarutobi's face went from normal to reddish purplish in less than half a second.

Naruto looked at him questionably, "Meatbag, why what's wrong?"

"MEATBAG! Where'd that come from!" Sarutobi nearly screamed.

"I don't see what's wrong? That's how Kyuubi-sensei refers to other people. Is it wrong?" Naruto quizzically asked.

When Sarutobi heard this he calmed down immediately, thinking about what he'd just heard. Naruto had referred to the Kyuubi as 'sensei' not a good sign.

"Never mind, here's a key to your new apartment, and money for the next month. The academy is the building next door. Iruka, the chuunin from the hospital is teaching your class."

"Thanks!" Naruto said before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

After Naruto left Sarutobi turn around and looked at the picture of Minato and smiled. "He may have been gone for all those years, but there's still some of you in there somewhere."

Sitting down in his chair Sarutobi thought about all the things that had been different after he'd resigned and Minato had the job. He couldn't find many different things. Then he looked down at the desk… it was gone, there was just a pile of papers almost up to his face… AAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!

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><p>That's chapter 2<p>

I know theres no action in this chapter but there will be in the next one. hope you enjoy'd.

R&R


	3. Teamwork

**HEY AGAIN!**

**Well, here's the next chapter. I honestly hope that it won't take me this long to update, just that, well… school's a !#$% pain in the ass! Once I get back into routine I should be able to update about once a month.**

**And now! A very warm welcome to my new BETA! DarkCoyote (A.K.A. – a good friend.)**

**Disclaimer… I don't own Naruto… You know what, Why should you have to disclaim something if you never really claimed it? Makes sense doesn't it. Doesn't it?**

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><p>Chapter 3 – Teamwork<p>

Naruto awoke the next morning to his alarm clock blaring in his ear.

It was 7:00 in the morning, first day as an 'exchange student' from another village.

He got up and donned his outfit from the previous day and left to go look for something to eat.

As he wandered the village aimlessly, ignoring the looks of the few people who were out at the time, he thought back to what he'd been told about the village.

Konoha was supposedly the strongest of the five main villages.

But comparing it to the other villages he'd visited it looked weaker even.

Iwa was a clear show of what their jutsu could do.

Kiri had some of the most vicious and dangerous people hiding there, because of the corruption.

Suna's ninjas all looked battle-hardened, but that may have just been since they lived in a desert.

And Kumo had some pretty strong ninja including the Raikage who was pretty damn awesome, not to mention that they had 2 jinchuuriki, and strong ones at that.

Suddenly a wonderful aroma wafted by Naruto's nose. Following it back to its source, he arrived at the front of a small food stand, right off a main street. The sign on top said "Ichiraku Ramen".

Naruto walked into the small food stand and right up to the counter.

A girl who looked to be a couple years older than him looked up from the cash register and smiled at him. "Hello. Welcome to Ichiraku Ramen. Would you like a menu?"

Looking over the menu Naruto felt himself almost drooling from the corner of his mouth.

Seeing him almost drooling, the girl said. "Before you soak the menu why don't I bring you some of our regular and if you like it you can get something else as well."

Naruto closed his mouth, he smiled at the girl. "Sure, thanks."

As the girl walked away to go get his menu, he realized that she hadn't even looked like she didn't want him there. There wasn't anything bad on her face. No fear, anger, disgust, nothing. Smiling at the thought that maybe Konoha was a good place after all.

A minute later the girl returned with a serving of ramen. Setting it down in front of Naruto, she asked. "So, what's your name? I haven't seen you here before. Are you new to Konoha?"

At this Naruto gaze lit up, "Naruto Uzumaki, I'm from Taki. I just got here a few days ago. So what's your name?"

"I'm Ayame. Hold on, are you the person that everyone's been talking about?"

Naruto's gaze shifted to the floor 'now she knows, I guess that Kyuubi-sensei was right. Everyone here hates me.'

"Hey, what's wrong? Do you not feel well?" Ayame said breaking Naruto out of his stupor.

Naruto had a disbelieving look on his face. "You don't think I'm a monster. Woah, that's a first."

"No, who said you're a monster? But, regardless of what the other people said, if you really were a monster you wouldn't love ramen so much." She said with a smile on her face.

"Awesome! The village isn't hopeless after all!" Naruto said with a grin that grew to take in both ears.

"Besides, I always thought that no matter what people say or where they're from, you make your own story."

"Thanks, I think you just made my day. Which reminds me, I gotta go! See ya later  
>Ayame!"<p>

Naruto arrived at the academy right on time. Walking in, he looked around at the inside of the building. There was a receptionist's desk in front with pictures of the four hokages on the wall behind it. On the left was stairs leading up to the upper floors, while on the right was a hallway leading down to classrooms.

Naruto walked up to the front desk to register.

The woman at the desk looked up from her papers at Naruto and said. "Hello, welcome to Konoha's ninja academy. Are you new here? What's your name?"

"Naruto Uzumaki, transfer." Nartuo replied, his face an impassive mask.

At his words the woman's face changed and her tone took on more of an aggressive tone to it. "Third floor, room 42."

**(A/N – if I need a random number in this story, it'll probably be 42 in reference to the great and almighty Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.)**

Naruto ignored the stare the woman gave him as he turned his back and headed for the stairs.

Naruto opened the door to his classroom 2 minutes before class was scheduled to were about 26 kids there. As he scanned the room he remembered one of the things the old-meatbag had told him. The class had the kids of the clan heads of 6 different clans, not including Sasuke Uchiha.

It was easy to tell those few from the rest. They all showed the obvious traits of the clans, Sasuke was the hardest to find since he was surrounded by a mass of girls.

Looking for a place to sit he found one in the back next to one, Shikamaru Nara, heir to the Nara clan.

As he entered the classroom he drew the stares of nearly all the occupants. They all shut up including the fan girls surrounding Sasuke. As he made his way to the back of the class he was stopped by a couple kids standing in his way.

"Hey, who are you? What're you doing here?" the kid in the middle asked, he had brown spiky hair and red fangs on his cheeks.

"Oh hey! I'm Naruto Uzumaki I'm new here. I just transferred from Taki. I almost became a ninja there, but because of the war I came back." Naruto said a giant grin spreading across his face.

The face of the kid in front of him changed to a snarl. "Then how come you're allowed to be here in our academy? Let alone a ninja!"

"Because, both of my parents died in a fight here about twelve years ago, so I was with my uncle, a merchant who was in Taki. I had intended to come here around the same time anyway but I had come earlier anyway because of the war."

"OK, then In that case let me welcome you back to Konoha! I'm Kiba Inuzaka, and this is Akamaru." Kiba said pointing to a small white dog with its head out the top of Kiba's sweater.

Before Naruto could respond a man with a giant head at the teacher's desk yelled at them to sit down and shut up. Apparently, it pissed him off really bad, as it didn't seem to sit well with him.

As Naruto sat in his seat in the back of the class the teacher whom he now recognized as the chunin who'd been at the hospital began to speak.

"Ok class, I've just sent in the form to sign you up for the test. We'll have a few more days of summing up all the material. Today we'll be doing the training exercises out back."

The class slowly climbed to its feet and made its way to the training field out back, chatting as it went.

Iruka stood on the training field behind the school facing the class who stood in a straight line. "Ok now we'll be pairing up in two's for taijutsu practice."

Naruto ended up against Kiba in the first round. Naruto thought back to the person who told him everything he needed to know to complete his mission. According to the standings amongst the top academy students, Naruto needed to be dead-last. 'Well, at least I don't have to do anything hard, getting to rookie of the year would've been difficult to do without revealing anything.' Naruto thought with a slight smile.

Turning back to the task at hand, he saw that he was going up against Kiba. Naruto intentionally tripped over his own feet at the beginning of the match and hit his head on the floor, knocking himself out.

Waking up a few minutes later Naruto shook his head to get rid of the dizzy feeling. As things came back into focus he saw that all of the fights had already ended. Now his classmates where throwing shruiken and kunai at target dummies.

Iruka helped Naruto back to his feet and handed him a pouch with five of each of the individual throwing weapons and pointed him to an empty dummy.

As Naruto threw the projectiles, he intentionally missed and hit the ground and the trees in the backround 9/10 times, hitting the target only on the last one and that one just on the way edge.

Afterwards they were made to run through the training course, which it had to be completed in under a certain time limit. Once again Naruto intentionally just barely passed under the time limit.

After all that Iruka dismissed them for the day, but he gave Naruto a questioning look as he left.

The next day at the academy they had the written test where Naruto once again made sure he just barely passed.

He continued to do this for the next few days until the four days where up.

Today Iruka-sensei didn't even have to use his 'huge-head-thingy-no-jutsu' everyone was eager to finally do the test. Upon hearing that the final test was today Naruto and a couple other kids jumped in the air and shouted different variations of BOO-YAH!

And just like the past few days, Naruto purposely got horrible marks on both the written and the practical exam. When it was time for the final test, the Bunshin no jutsu, Naruto got called fourth to last.

Naruto walked into the back room to face the two instructors, Iruka-sensei, and Mizuki, a chunin who Naruto distrusted. He made his hands into the hand seals, and pretended to be focusing very hard on it. A second later 1 ½ clones appeared.

Both the real Naruto and his clone looked awkwardly at their third counterpart flopping on the floor. Before they could fail him Naruto yelled, "Wait! Gimme a second chance I know I can do it this time!"

Before they could say anything Naruto put his hands into the same seal, and successfully summoned two bunshins on either side. Iruka congratulated him on passing and handed him his new leaf headband. Pumping his fist in victory Naruto ran back into the classroom nearly jumping for joy.

After everyone had done the test Iruka sent them home for the day telling them to come back the next day same time for information regarding their new ninja status.

Naruto entered Sarutobi's office late that night. He'd been called summoned earlier today to be here at nine sharp.

Looking around, old-meatbag-sama was nowhere to be seen.

"Hey! Old-meatbag-sama! Where'd you go?"

"Ah, welcome Naruto, it's good to see… uh, hear you again. I'm at my desk, behind the mounds of paper. Come around here, I seem to be unable to move my legs."

When Naruto reached the other side of the desk he saw a pile of papers probably 4-5 feet high with Sarutobi's head sticking out the top.

Just thinking about it made Naruto burst out laughing.

"What exactly happened here?" he asked between laughs.

"Well… in short… uum… one of my jonin had a new technique they wanted to try out and, well… yah…" Sarutobi finished lamely.

"OK, so why'd you call me here Old-meatbag-sama?"

The expression on Sarutobi face switched to pissed. "I told you not to call me that!"

"But, that's what you are. Should I be calling you something other than the truth?"

Sarutobi just shrugged it off and continued. "Nevermind, I called you here today to ask you about the new genin squads. According to Iruka, you've been getting just passable grades on your exercises and tests. I'm asking why you are doing this, and please don't lie. I will not put you on a certain team if it jeopardized this village."

Knowing there was no point in lying Naruto began. "According to my information Sasuke Uchiha is rookie of the year, and that this was more or less known for the whole. According to Konoha policy the rookie of year goes with the top kunoichi, and the dead last. It is my goal to be on the same team as the Uchiha. So… seeing as I'm not female and I don't want a 'Gender Bender' operation, I'll need to be dead last. I know that you have the ability to change the teams in drastic circumstances, but right now I ask you to let it slip this time."

Sarutobi sighed; these kinds of problems gave him a headache. He was thinking through all of the possible things that could go wrong. He knew that the boy was almost power hungry in his quest for killing his brother. And that combination with Naruto… well so many things could go wrong there.

Sarutobi turned back to Naruto but was cut off.

"I do not want your answer right now. I will hear your decision tomorrow morning. I hope you make the right choice." Naruto said before disappearing.

Sarutobi knew that he'd have to think very hard on it, but the threat in those last words was unmistakable.

Konoha Academy – 8:30 AM

"Team 7, Haruno Sakura! Uzumaki Naruto! And Uchiha Sasuke!" Iruka called out to the attentive class.

"HELL YEAH!" Sakura screamed at the top of her lungs.

"Um… moving onward. Team 8- Inuzuka Kiba! Hyuuga Hinata! And Aburame Shino!

"Since there is already a team 9 we go straight to team 10 – Nara Shikamaru! Akamichi Chouji! And Yamanaka Ino!"

Iruka continued to call out names for teams until the last team was called, team 22.

"You'll be meeting you're new jounin sensei's later today, they should be here this afternoon."

Iruka had just finished packing away his stuff when Sakura realized who else was on her team other than her _'Sasuke-kun'_.

"HEY IRUKA SENSEI! WHY TO ME AND _Sasuke-kun _HAVE TO BE ON THE SAME TEAM AS 'DEAD-LAST' OVER HERE!"

Iruka winced at the loudness of her yell. He rubbed his ears for a minute before answering.

"To balance the teams, this way the best students go with the weakest ones, that way the team is more or less balanced."

Sasuke's face grimaced, "Great I have a loud-mouth AND the dead-last to slow me down."

Naruto's face, until now impassive grew into a full ear-to-ear smile. "BOO-YAH! I'm gonna live the longest out of everyone here!"

Sasuke face grimaced even past normal means. "Make that, TWO loud-mouths!"

Iruka and the rest of the kids in the class watching this interaction sweat-dropped from the scene. Iruka just hoped that everything would work out for them as a team, especially Naruto.

Naruto was taking a nap on a chair leaning back against the door. Sasuke was at a table in his very normal routine of brooding, while Sakura was, again, routinely staring at said brooding boy.

This is what Kakashi Hatake saw as he stood next the hokage looking into a crystal ball.

"You know Kakashi, you might want to really consider this a team to be worth training. While the Haruno girl may not be anything special, the other two are. The last of the Uchiha line and brother of Itachi Uchiha. And Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze, the son of the fourth hokage and your sensei." Sarutobi said looking at the man on his right. He was one of his best ninja but he had failed every single one of his teams, because they lacked the one main thing he thought all shinobi should know.

Kakashi had been thinking along the same lines, and he would hate to fail his sensei's son. But he knew that he would never show favoritism in his first and main rule. He would only pass Naruto if he successfully completes his challenge.

"I guess I'll be going now. I've already reached my 3-hour mark and it's starting to get dark out, I want to be finished before dark." Kakashi said before disappear in a burst of smoke.

Sarutobi face-palmed at Kakashi's unspoken rule of being 3-or-so-hours-late before turning back to face the crystal, in order to see what would unfold.

While he was waiting for the fireworks to burst there was a knock on the door.

Into his office came a 6-foot high walking stack of papers. #$%!

) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) (

Kakashi pulled open the door to the class room where the new genins were supposed to wait.

Before he could say anything he saw a chair with a kid in it falling backwards right onto him!

Naruto started swearing his head off at whatever made him wake up, using words that would make a sailor proud.

The swearing broke Sakura out of her stupor. When she noticed the new member of the room she screeched, "YOU'RE LATE!"

Kakashi slowly climbed back to his feet. Looking around the room he settled his eyes on the three kids there. "My first impression is… I don't like you guys. Meet me on the roof.

"Ok, well, let's begin with introducing yourselves." Kakashi began

"What do you want to know?"

"How 'bout your likes, dislikes, and dreams for the future and things like that." Kakashi continued.

"Well seeing as you're the one asking, you should go first." Naruto piped up.

"Yah, and you look kinda suspicious." Sakura put in.

"Oh… me? Well my name is Hatake Kakashi… I have no desire to tell you my likes and dislikes… Dreams for the future… Hmm… And I have lots of hobbies…" Kakashi lazily said.

"So… all he told us… is his name?" Sakura said with a slightly pissed/confused look.

"Ok well let's start on the right. Blondie, you first."

"Hmm… well… umm… I guess… I like… I really lik… I dislike… quite a bit… dreams for the future…" At this Naruto's face turned into a face of pure and uncontrolled rage. "To exact my revenge upon the man who thought to take control of my life!"

Sasuke who had been passively sitting on the side fuming looked up at the boy sitting across from him. 'Could it be… someone else who understood him and could help him find and kill Itachi. But then again, he's dead-last and he can't be any help'.

Kakashi frowned at the outburst from his blonde student. Sarutobi had told him that Naruto probably had a very difficult past, and that he was loathed to admit anything about it. Yet, here he was giving away a useful bit of information.

"OK, next."

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are a lot of things I dislike and I don't really like anything and… I can't really call it a dream… but I have an ambition, the resurrection of my clan, and… to kill a certain man." Sasuke said his face breaking out into anger.

"So cool 3!" Sakura thought.

"Like I thought…" Kakashi thought.

"Ok, lastly the girl."

"My name is Haruno Sakura. The thing I like is… well the person I like is… and uhm… my dream for the future… uhm…? OH YEAH!" Sakura said screaming.

"…" Kakashi thought

"What I dislike… Is dead-last over here, for butting in on my time with _Sasuke-kun_ My hobby is…" Sakura finished drifting off into space looking at Sasuke.

Kakashi inwardly sighed at the display. "Girls of this age are more interested in love than ninjutsu. It seems that I get an unknown ninja who could possible kill the village at any moment, a brooding teen hell-bent on revenge, and a half-crazed fangirl… SIGH!"

"OK, so that's it for the introductions, tomorrow we begin duties as ninjas, with a four man exercise. It will be just us for now. We'll be having survival training."

"Umm, Kakashi sensei, why do we have survival training, we had enough training at the academy." Sakura asked.

"Because this will be different, it'll be you three on me. And if you fail… you'll be sent back to the academy. Only of you will actually become ninjas, all the rest will return to the academy." Kakashi replied.

Of the three of the fresh genins there only Sakura looked shocked.

"… anyway… tomorrow you have to show your real skills on the training ground. Bring all the shinobi tools you have. Oh… and skip breakfast you might throw up. Here are the papers, the details are on em`. And don't be late tomorrow. Kakashi finished before turning around and walk of the edge of the build waving as he went.

Sakura cried out in alarm as Kakashi vanished from view of the edge of the building. Running to the edge she saw their sensei walking down the street as though nothing had just happened, reading a peculiarly bright orange book.

The next morning Naruto awoke to the sound of his stupid alarm clock. Looking at the time he saw that it said 11:30 AM he was scheduled to meet at the training grounds at 9:00. But assuming that the way his sensei had arrived the previous day. He could be late by 3 hours anyway so he had time.

Naruto arrived at training ground 7 at 11:55 to see a sleeping Sasuke and a pissed off Sakura.

When Sakura saw him she started screeching her head off about being late.

Just as it was starting to get to his head a poof of smoke appeared revealing a white haired jonin, and once again Sakura starting screaming, this time directed at Kakashi.

As Kakashi tried to clean out his hear so he could he what the girl was saying, he saw a blonde kid in the background saying a prayer of thanks before turning and laughing at him.

After a few minutes of continued screaming, Kakashi set a clock down on a log that seemed to appear from nowhere.

"Alright, the clock is set for noon…"

At this all three of the genin sweat dropped, " for god's/Tsunade's sake. The clock clearly said 11:08."

"…here are two bells. Your task is to take these from me before the time runs out. If you don't have a bell by noon, you don't get lunch. And if you don't, you'll be forced to watch me eat."

Sakura's and Sasuke's stomachs rumbled at this. When Naruto's didn't they threw a questioning look at him.

"So what if I throw up not worth missing breakfast…" He shrugged.

"Since there are only two bells…" Kakashi continued, "One of you will defiantly be tied to the stump. And also… whoever doesn't get a bell automatically fails and gets sent back to the academy."

Sakura started shaking at the prospect of not being able to be on the same team as her _Sasuke-kun_.

"You better use all your weapons cause you won't succeed unless you come at me with the intent to kill." Kakashi finished up looking at the genins. One brooding, one daydreaming, and one shaking.

"BEGIN!" Kakashi shouted.

The not-quite-so-blurred genins jumped away into the tree.

"Looking around Kakashi knew the directions where they were but not their exact location. 'Well at least they know how to hide.

Sasuke was hidden in one of the trees at the edge of the training grounds, looking at his new jonin instructor take out an orange book and begin reading.

He had to figure out a way to beat the man. He knew even he couldn't go toe to toe with a jonin, he'd just have to wait for the perfect opportunity.

Just then he saw a figure shift out of the shadows to the base of the tree. Closer inspection showed him his blonde teammate.

Sasuke jumped down from the tree silently landing behind Naruto before putting a hand over his mouth to stop him from screaming.

"What are you doing!" Sasuke hissed at Naruto.

"I thought that since there no way in hell any one of us could beat him… we have to work together." Naruto hissed through his teeth.

"Leave me alone, you'll just get in my way!" Sasuke responded before jumping back into the trees.

Naruto just sighed before disappearing back the way he came.

Sakura was hidden under a bush right at the edge of the clearing where Kakashi-sensei was reading his orange book and strangely… giggling.

She knew that she had to move and find her _Sasuke-kun_ before anything could happen.

Darting backwards into the cover of the trees she became to make her way over to where she thought he'd gone.

Just as she stepped around a tree she saw her blonde teammate sneaking along the tree line, when he spotted her he silently sneaked over.

"Hey!" he hissed out, "I've been thinking, we have to team up to beat him. No one of us stand a chance against him alone, not you, not me, not even Sasuke."

Sakura was listening up to the part where he said something bad about Sasuke. She smacked him across the top of the head before starting to yell at the top of her lungs about Sasuke and how strong he was and how he could beat the lazy _jonin_ inside and out with his own dumb little orange book.

Naruto realized what was about to happen right before it did. He just managed to jump forward and throw Sakura out of the way before he was hit with a massive tree trunk.

The tree trunk would have impaled him and probably killed him right there if he hadn't moved to side just enough that the trunk hit his shoulder, throwing him into the air to smack his back on a tree, loudly.

Kakashi blindly rushed into the trees after the heretic.

No one could insult his precious book! Especially not some weak genin who could't even keep their voices down.

Naruto dodged just in time to blindly jump to the side so as to avoid being pierced by a mass multitude of kunai and shruiken. Knowing he didn't have much time Naruto jumped into the branches of the tree he landed against before taking off back towards the training ground clearing.

Sasuke had been waiting for the perfect opportunity to attack when he vaguely heard Sakura voice yelling in the distance. Swearing under his breath he took off straight towards the sound.

He arrived just in time to see Naruto push Sakura out of the way of a fast flying tree trunk. Naruto was thrown through the air to smack into a tree, followed closely by an enraged jonin. He saw Naruto move just in time to avoid being a pincushion. The jonin looked like he wasn't giving in easily as he dashed after the genin back towards the clearing.

Sasuke knew that a better opportunity wouldn't be presented, EVER.

With the jonin headed straight towards the branch under his, he pulled out a load of small projectiles.

As Kakashi made the jump to the branch beneath his, Sasuke let lose his small arsenal of weapons at the enraged jonin.

It seemed to snap the jonin out of his thoughts as he kawarimied with a nearby log.

Sasuke jumped towards the jonin racing through hand seals as fast as he could. He knew he wouldn't get a better chance. **Katon - Goukakyuu No Jutsu.**

The giant fireball sped towards the airborne jonin before impacting with a sizzling sound.

When the smoke cleared the charred and burned remains of a dead log came into view. "FUCK!" Sasuke said looking around for the sensei.

"In the air? No, on the side? Where could he be?"

"Below you" Sasuke heard from the ground before a hand reached out grapping his ankle pulling him down until he was buried up to his head in the ground.

**Doton – Shinjuu Zanshu No Jutsu.**

Kakashi said to the head of a pissed off boy.

Looking for the other team members he saw a limping Naruto come back into the clearing carrying an unconscious Sakura.

Upon closer inspection he noticed a huge bump on her head. She must've hit her head on a rock.

"tsk, tsk, tsk, you guys are pathetic, you couldn't even put scratch on me. Sasuke you included, no matter how much of a genuis you are. You underestimated me, no jonin in shape could be beaten by just one genin."

Sasuke and Sakura both grimaced but Naruto just smiled.

"Well then, don't underestimate us either. Cause we aren't out of this yet!"

Kakashi's eyes widened slightly when he realized what had just happened. Jumping to the side got him out of the immediate blast radius, but the shockwave still sent him flying through the air.

Kakashi managed to right himself in the air, landing on the balls of his feet.

'Damn it! Guess they might be better than I thought. Heck I can't even sense them now. Guess that hokage-sama was right when he said that Naruto was amazing. Pulling that trap like that, whew…'

Naruto landed in a clearing that he had made earlier, he knew that they wouldn't be able to beat on their own, well maybe apart from him, but he couldn't just go around and go full power. Old-meatbag-sama would probably have a heart attack. Either way he needed to get through without using even a fraction of his techniques. He needed Sasuke to trust him.

Sasuke awoke with a slight headache, shaking his head to try and clear away the ache he thought back to the last thing he remembered. Kakshi pulled him underground and he couldn't move. He remember Naruto coming back with and injured Sakura.

Kakashi started to reprimand them but didn't seem to notice when another Naruto came up to him and pulled him free, then everything went black.

Sitting up he saw Naruto sitting next to a 'pinkette' lying on the ground with a nasty bump on her head.

"Ugh! What'd you do to me?"

Naruto turned to face Sasuke, a smile on his face.

"I got us another chance. Kakashi sensei was going to fail us but I got us away and blew up the area."

Sasuke looked at the blonde a look of hatred on his face.

'WHAT! How could the dope be this smart and resourceful, escaping from a jonin unnoticed! What the hell!'

"Remember what I said before you blindly decided that we'd be a hindrance. There is no way we can take on a full jonin by ourselves, we need to work together. I was able to escape because he underestimated me for a second, he thought I was too tired to do anything. Next time we won't be so lucky."

As much as he tried to deny it, Naruto was right. They need to work together to take him on.

"Alright wake up Sakura. We need a plan to beat him and quick, before he gets here."

Kakashi was jumping through forest straight towards where he'd felt the three genin. He knew that he may be walking into a trap but he had backup.

As soon as he entered the clearing he knew something was wrong. The way the trees were standing was strange. Bringing his hands together he yelled "Kai!" dispelling the genjutsu.

He had just enough time to bring up his hands in a defensive position as a black-haired Sasuke hit him with a direct kick. Kakashi knew full well that he had to keep all of them in his line of sight.

Waiting till Sasuke threw the next combo at him he kawarimied with a log near the treetops. He began weaving a light genjutsu over the area, only quick reflexes saved him from becoming a pincushion as dozens of throwing stars came flying from the tree to the right.

Knowing he had little time before he was engaged again. Kakashi quickly pulled a few kunai throwing them towards where the shruiken came from.

Jumping forwards towards where Sakura had gone. He saw a few small moving projectiles coming to intercept him.

Shifting to the right out of the way of the throwing weapons he saw Sakura flying through the air towards him kunai being held in all positions possible, quite literally a flying pincushion. Kawariming with the only thing not within range of Sakura or Sasuke gave Kakashi some room to breathe.

He knew that Naruto was going to show up at some point but when?

When he switched places with the log he noticed Sasuke running full speed to the bottom of the tree which he was currently standing on.

A shadow fell across Kakashi's face. Looking up he saw Naruto coming straight at him with a fist cocked back ready to punch.

Taking the hit head on, Kakashi meant to stay on the branch and use Naruto to his advantage. Instead he was now heading straight towards the ground accompanied by the branch he was until recently standing on.

'Wow that kid packs one helluva punch.'

Kakashi knew that he was in trouble when he saw Sasuke leap through the air straight at him speeding through hand-seals **Katon - Goukakyuu No Jutsu!**

A massive fireball erupted heading straight towards the falling jonin.

Kakashi knew he had to do something fast. Shunshining out of the fireballs way he shunshined back towards Sasuke hitting him in the back of the neck, repeating the process with Naruto and Sakura.

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura awoke a while later when they looked up they saw they were lying on the ground in training ground seven. Kakashi was sitting on a nearby stump reading his classic orange book.

Sakura was the first to bring up the nerve to ask Kakashi anything.

"Uum… Kakashi sensei, what happened with the test?"

"hn…" Kakashi replied. "hehe…"

"What? Oh! Yah, you guys passed, you guys get the day off tomorrow, be here at 7 am in two days. CHOW!" Kakashi finished before disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

There was complete silence for a second. Then…

"WHAT!" all three of the genin yelled. How did they pass they didn't even get the bells.

Making a beeline for the hokage tower, the three genin scared random civilians at the speed they ran.

Team 7 minus their new sensei arrived at the hokage tower completely out of breath. Barging into the hokage's office they saw him sitting on a mat drawing strange symbols.

Knowing full well what they were there for he turned to face the three genin.

"I assume you're here to find out why you passed. As it turns out Kakashi has never passed a genin team, you're the first."

The faces of the three genin was, at first shock, complete and total shock.

"But h-hokage s-sama, why did he pass us we didn't even get the bells?" Sakura stammered, nervous about speaking directly to the hokage.

Sarutobi sighed. "Kakashi has a very strict rule as to what makes a team a team. 'Those who break the rules are trash, but those who betray their comrades are worse than trash.' He won't accept a team unless they actually show that they can work together as a team."

Sarutobi saw understanding dawn on the genins faces.

"There is an expression that says that even three genin can defeat a jonin if they know what they're doing. As it turns out Kakashi went to the hospital for some minor treatment after the fight with you yesterday. Apart from missions and spars with other jonin and/or ANBU he hasn't been injured that much since before he became jonin."

At the thought that they, three fresh genin, actually hurt one of Konohas elite shinobi went to say that they were skilled, very skilled, or his sucked, bad!

Sasuke said goodbye to Sarutobi for the team before turning to leave.

After they left the room Naruto turned to ask them if they wanted to go get something to eat. But before he could finish Sakura pushed him out of the way grapping onto Sasuke's arm and saying things like how awesome he was.

Sarutobi just sighed, he knew that they would be one of the best squads of ninja to ever be, but for now they were still kids.

Turning back to his writing he called for his personal ANBU.

"Lion, go and tell Naruto discreetly that he is to come here at 8:00 tonight I need to speak with him."

"Hai" Lion just said before disappearing in a burst of smoke.

Omake!#$% - The newest forbidden technique.

Kurenai Yuuhi was headed to the hokage's office. She'd been summoned to speak with him about possibly taking on a new genin squad.

She'd always wanted to teach genin, but then again, the pay wasn't that good and it was more of babysitting for the beginning.

Undaunted she made her way to the hokage tower and up to his office. Walking in her first image was a wizened old man sitting behind a desk that was covered in papers. She soon realized that he was reading a small orange book and giggling pervertedly. She just made out the words 'Come Come Paradise' on the front.

IT WAS ONE OF THOSE PERVERTED BOOKS!

When he saw her enter the office he looked up… but his gaze stopped about chest level.

"Ahh… Kurenai, pleasure to see you guys again…"

"PERVERT!" Kurenai screamed, flashing through a very long set of handseals.

Since he was already looking in the general direction, Sarutobi just barely saw the handsigns and understood the technique about to come.

"no, you wouldn't… NO!..."

**Hidden kunoichi secret double techniques – PERVET SEALING NO JUTSU!**

**ANTI PERVERT SEALING NO JUTSU!**

Sarutobi knew it happened right as it did, he didn't feel anything going on in his body, no feelings, nothing! Plus, his book was gone, GONE! Turning to look at Kurenai he saw an evil grin taking shape.

"**RESSUN NO JUTSU!**

Sarutobi didn't know what that jutsu was but he was sure he didn't like the sound of it.

Just as he turned to look back at Kurenai he saw a growing wall of paper.

"NOO!..."

The growing papers soon enveloped him holding him tight in a giant stack of papers.

He just managed to get a final look at the jonin's ass as she left the room.

* * *

><p><strong>There you guys go. Hope you enjoyed it, cause I sure as hell didn't! JK…<strong>

**Hope you liked the omake. You know what, if I had to say so myself, for a first fight scene and omake ever, I think I did a pretty good job.**

**A RABBIT BIT A SNAKE! (don't ask)**


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